I was wondering last night why Tanner Scheppers never came into the game for the Rangers. Today, I found out why.

Texas Rangers reliever Tanner Scheppers didn't pitch on Friday because he was unavailable after getting "sucker punched" by several males on the streets of downtown Cleveland on Thursday night.

Scheppers went to get a bite to eat after the team arrived, and the incident occurred about two blocks from the team hotel. There was no robbery and the Cleveland police are aware of the situation, although a report was not filed.

GodHatesClevelandSport wrote:Sure, he just got punched for no reason by a bunch of guys who took off running. Sounds reasonable.

Cleveland's Scene Magazine is all over this story:

If the story of the innocent baseball player sucker-punched on his way to an innocent dinner in Cleveland because Cleveland is just an unsafe city doesn't exactly have that ring of truth to it, it's because it's not true.

Scene spoke to a witness to the "sucker punch," and there are more than a few discrepancies between his story and that of Tanner.

First, it was at 2:30 a.m. outside of Panini's on W. 6th.

Second, Tanner was a verbal instigator. He was with Joe Nathan, A.J. Pierzynski, and, according to our tipster, a bunch of girls. He had been jawing back and forth for a few minutes before the physical altercation took place.

"He lost a bar fight," says the witness. "He had 10 chances to walk away before this happened."

The guy that sucker punched Scheppers should be put in jail. This behavior is atrocious and absolutely unacceptable......AJ Perzinski is standing right there and you punch Scheppers? Absolutely unacceptable.